A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The Judaizers were a faction of Jewish Christians who regarded the Levitical laws of the Old Testament as still binding on all Christians. They were strenuously opposed and criticized for their behavior by the Apostle Paul, who used many of his epistles, including our text for today, to ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In addition to being the day in which six of our parish confirmands publicly confess the faith and the other spiritual gifts that were given them in Baptism, today commemorates Martin Luther’s initiation of the Reformation on October 31, 1517. What began as an invitation for academic debate over the abusive doctrine of indulgences, soon became a call for the return to God’s Word as the sole authority for the Church’s doctrine and life. Scriptures clearly teaches that a sinner’s only hope in life or death is that Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection are enough to save them. Solely by virtue of Christ’s substitutionary life and death, are sinners declared righteous before their holy God. Luther and the other reformers had to fight, some to the death, to preach this Gospel to Christ’s Church. Today our confirmands will make a vow to do similarly if necessary. They will be...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who ha...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:23-25a). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Martin Luther is generally remembered on this Reformation Day for the posting of the 95 Theses, statements for debate on repentance and the sale of indulgences. But a more complete statement of faith prepared by Luther is the Smalcald Articles. It was Luther’s hope that this document would be used for discussion at a general council of the Church or, should he die before such a council was held, that it would be regarded as his “last will and testament.” The Smalcald Articles clearly establish the differences between Romanism and Lutheranism. Nowhere is this more evident than in Article I. It reads: The first and chief article ...